He said that the river had been closed to all non-emergency traffic in the immediate area.

Earlier, an assailant had stabbed a policeman and was shot by police just outside Britain’s parliament building in what police described as a “terrorist incident.”

Amid confusing scenes, it appeared the incident may have unfolded in several locations, including on the nearby Westminster Bridge where eyewitnesses said a car had crashed into pedestrians.

According to the report, two people died in the incident, but the total number of casualties was unclear.

“Officers including firearms officers remain on the scene and we are treating this as a terrorist incident until we know otherwise”, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

The incident took place on the first anniversary of attacks by Islamist militants that killed 32 people in Brussels.

Some people suffered catastrophic injuries in the incident, British news agency the Press Association reported, citing a doctor at St Thomas’s Hospital which is located directly across the River Thames from parliament.

Officials said an assailant had stabbed a policeman and then been shot.